Covid cast an entirely new light on the personal-fitness training arena. Suddenly, the highly individual, in-person, hands-on practice of physical fitness trainers represented a dark, dangerous zone.
Compounding the complications, gyms and fitness clubs were shut down entirely due to public-health safety protocols.
Trainers’ access to equipment—even if moved outdoors after the initial shelter-in-place orders lifted or used in virtual classes and programs made available by clubs—was eliminated or, at best, rare. A trainer whose business was independent or who worked only through a club affiliation was cast into the cold world of “what now?”
Like his colleagues, Martinez-based Brandon Glass hit upon his thriving self-owned company, Contra Costa Fitness, while in a predicament. He knew continued success demanded an immediate rethink.
“Almost all my clients were in-person,” Glass said. “Many of them required hands-on assistance, and with Covid I couldn’t see them safely. I had been training and running bootcamps for some time when the pandemic hit, and I just had a feeling we weren’t going to quarantine for a couple weeks and watch life return to normal. I pivoted immediately.”
Glass was born in San Francisco and grew up in Walnut Creek. The 41-year-old and his wife, Rachel Taketa, are parents of two children and proud keepers of Captain Waffles, a rescued “Fitbull.” Glass, when he’s not training clients, occasionally sings with the local hard-rock band Rose Hill and hikes, camps, rock climbs and runs half-marathons or, preferably, 10k’s. He is the former licensed physical therapist assistant and trainer at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Martinez; a certified personal trainer, certified by the National Council On Strength & Fitness; and a fitness nutrition specialist, certified by the American Council On Exercise.
“My career in personal training started in a less-than-conventional way. Many in the physical therapy field started out as personal trainers and moved on to physical therapy,” he said. “While I was an athlete growing up—I’ve always been interested in training myself and others—I started my professional career in physical therapy.”
Glass played football during his teen years and admits to his bumpy academic history being “a story in itself.”
In some ways, fitness trainers during the pandemic were best served by the ability to scramble, to make something out of nothing, to ride roughshod over rough patches with the same grit and determination often required of the athletes they train. In a broad sweep of personal trainers taking matters into their own hands, the most successful—gauged by following approximately a dozen trainers to track who survived during the two-year period from 2020 to 2022—most jumped immediately past the no-in-person, no-indoor hurdles with outdoor offerings, online classes and newsletters or blogs to keep back-and-forth communications with clients healthy and strong. Some trainers added personal touches: links to masks and t-shirts proclaiming fitness goals, journaling recommendations, services offered in more languages, expanded co-trainers whose expertise and styles supplemented the core services and other resources.
“The first thing I did was start offering bootcamps and training sessions online,” Glass said. “And while there was a technological learning curve, it was relatively simple and easy, and I had got out the gate early, so I caught enough clients to get by before the gyms started offering online services for dirt cheap, if not free.”
He says the response “was awesome” and more: “I could take on clients all over the world. No more traveling for me or my clients. I could use the time I was saving on travel to provide more open lines of communication.”
As the first few weeks of the pandemic lockdowns wore on into months, and then two years of on-off restrictions, his clients began to reveal new vulnerabilities. These were not weaknesses due to imbalanced cores, legs or upper-body strength—or hardships caused by slacking off during isolation. These needs were more lifestyle than Lifecycle.
“Clients needed more than the normal training models where a trainer showed up, provided a workout and maybe a little nutrition advice. [Prior to the pandemic,] it was just that, and “see ya next week.” That wasn’t good enough. People needed guidance getting their lifestyles back on track and coping with things like emotional eating. They needed guidance and support, plans, structure and accountability. They needed more than someone to kick their butts; they needed a health-and-fitness guide.”
Glass started providing nutritional coaching and “hustle at home” training programs of varying frequency and duration. Classes offered eight times weekly on the Moxie platform include Rejuvenation Yoga, Functional HIIT, Strength and Cardio Kickboxing, Combat and FitPump. Expanding the services, but also making them more intimate and individually designed, Contra Costa Fitness offers C(LEAN) Coaching, a system of daily accountability and support that steers clients toward stability and confidence that Glass says results from developing and practicing a sustainable way of living. “No more calorie restrictions. No more yo-yos. One day at a time we will build new habits and daily practices around nutrition, eating and self-care practices,” the website proclaims. A computer, a phone and a willingness to collaboratively create and consistently implement a personalized design for living are the primary must-haves.
“This has proven to be truly life-changing for my clients,” Glass said, when asked about the impact of the broader platform of services. “Now I can provide online communities, open lines of communication, stores of resources and information for my clients to access. Our newest service, C(LEAN) Club, provides all the things I heard clients asking for: meal plans, workouts, coaching calls, accountability and inspiration all in one place, at their fingertips, for a really affordable price. How great is that?”
Answering the self-posed question, Glass says that although the pandemic provided serious challenges, the positives are proving to be more than just silver linings. He has formed friendships and partnerships worldwide. One of his personal training partners lives in Michigan and has become a best friend. Not only has his client list grown, he has experienced a boost in self-respect and strengthened the original purpose that first launched him into the world of fitness training. “I’ve learned that if you are willing to learn and adapt, you make incredible things happen in people’s lives,” he said. “As long as that is the heart of what I do—changing lives and providing exactly what my client needs—I will be successful.”
Glass predicts it is unlikely he will ever go back exclusively to in-person training. Online training and coaching caused him to be creative, to think in ways he would never have imagined three years ago. From a practical standpoint, training clients online provides more time to help more people, and it removes geographical boundaries. “Most importantly, it allows me to serve and connect with my clients at a higher level. Why would anyone change that?” Glass asked.
The answer? Certainly his family would not object to the changes in his business model. Glass—in this new, virtual rubric—has more in-person, high-touch time and interaction with family, friends and the other trainers at Contra Costa Fitness and trainers across the Bay Area who demonstrated the same or similar flexibility benefit from the improved life-work balance. To quote Glass, “How great is that?”
